Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

[tiggrbaby]

What a full day!

I think the well-dressed man posing as security is scarier than the two hounding you!

The room and views were nice!

The boat trip was lovely; I actually think it was better that you weren't on the cute boat because that gave you the opportunity to take a pic of it on the water.

Your talent for photography is amazing!

 

[dhorner233]

Denise - If you and DCuz are thinking about SDL and HKDL, I'd recommend you seriously consider going. Once you get the hang of the Metro system, Shanghai is quite easy to get around. And if you take the official taxis, it's relatively cheap for around the CBD. And.....it was seriously cheaper for me than heading to a US park.

I think I will just live vicariously through you! And it makes a lot of sense for you!

But, have you seen this Youtube video:

I don't have a tattoo but I've had that conversation with people. Going to DW is enough excitement for me!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I love how clear and bright the neons are in your pics. Very envious of your photography skills.

With regards to the hot pot, out of interest. what sauces do they give you to add flavour to the meat? The only reason I've avoided hot pot in the past is because I enjoy meat cooked with herbs and seasonings and are worried I won't enjoy the flavours (or lack of).

 

[WanderlustNZ]

P.S. That You Tube video above is hilarious. I can see myself in both of those characters - the Yin and Yang sitting on each of my shoulders.

There's the side that continually craves a return to my happy place, and the other side that chastises that part of my personality for becoming far to comfortable.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a full day!

I think the well-dressed man posing as security is scarier than the two hounding you!

The room and views were nice!

The boat trip was lovely; I actually think it was better that you weren't on the cute boat because that gave you the opportunity to take a pic of it on the water.

Your talent for photography is amazing!

YAY! You're all caught up.

Yes, the well-dressed man had a great angle for a scam worked out. On a different day and person, it probably would have worked.

Thank you!

I think I will just live vicariously through you! And it makes a lot of sense for you!

But, have you seen this Youtube video:

I don't have a tattoo but I've had that conversation with people. Going to DW is enough excitement for me!

That YouTube is uncomfortably close to the truth!!!
I'm pretty sure I've had similar conversations.....and like you, I haven't got the tattoo either.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I love how clear and bright the neons are in your pics. Very envious of your photography skills.

But.....you have the same tog skills! I remember your gorgeous pictures in your TRs!!!

With regards to the hot pot, out of interest. what sauces do they give you to add flavour to the meat? The only reason I've avoided hot pot in the past is because I enjoy meat cooked with herbs and seasonings and are worried I won't enjoy the flavours (or lack of).

We had the choice of peanut (bland), chilli (which I wish we had chosen) and I think....a plum sauce (which we also should have chosen).

The water did have some of the chinese herbs in it and whilst there wasn't a lot of them, it did impart a mild flavour to everything we cooked.

In any case, Shanghai cooking is on the bland side for my tastebuds. So I don't know whether a different sauce would have been better or not. All I remember is that we were cold from the cruise and the hotpot was exactly what we were hoping for dinner. And the soup at the end was beautifully flavoured after all that cooking.

P.S. That You Tube video above is hilarious. I can see myself in both of those characters - the Yin and Yang sitting on each of my shoulders.

There's the side that continually craves a return to my happy place, and the other side that chastises that part of my personality for becoming far to comfortable.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Day 2 – Shanghai to Suzhou and Back Again


An Eastern Style Breakfast



Our accommodation in Shanghai included the buffet breakfast with the room rate we paid. We figured – hoped – we were going to get an East West buffet.


So, we after we got ready, we headed to the breakfast floor. This was to be ‘our’ table.





And yes, all our hopes were answered when we checked out the buffet. It WAS an East West buffet. By way of example, we found French toast and pancakes; as well as rice flour bao, sticky rice dumplings (or zongzi) and fried noodles.





Zongzi (China) or bachang (Malaysia, Singapore) or non chang (Cambodia) or pya htote (Burma) are traditionally eaten during Dragonboat Festival in May/June. As a child growing up in Asia, I remember seeing my grandmothers, aunts and mother wrapping sticky rice in banana leaves in the tetrahedral shape that we found in China. It is a knack of wrapping that I have never ever learnt how to do. I can get as far as making a conical shape and getting the rice and filling in. But the final act of closing the cone is a mystery that I will have to learn in a different lifetime. Of course, you can wrap the zongzi as an elongated package. That’s MUCH easier to do.

To cook it, you boil it for several hours and once cooked, it can have a shelf-life of several weeks at the very least.



The filling inside the zongzi can be savoury or sweet. In the case of the zongzi we found at the breakfast buffet, it was a savoury meat filling. But there was waaaay too much glutinous rice and not enough filling. I never went back for another one after trying one on this first morning.

It is a popular snack in Asian countries, so these days, you'll pretty much find them all year round. There will be different types of leaves used as the wrapper...they do impact different flavours to the rice.


What interested both my mother and me more was the fresh noodle station. There was a stash of dough much like you would find in a pizza shop and the noodle chef would cut a little bit off when you placed an order. And yes, I had to place my order using sign gestures.






The noodle chef would roll and fold the dough multiple times. After a number of times rolling and folding, he would then stretch and twist the dough.





He kept repeating the roll, fold, stretch and twist multiple times until he got to a bundle that only he knew what it was he was looking for.





And look at those noodles! Every strand looks consistent in diameter from one end to the other.



I didn’t realise it until after we had checked out of the hotel….but the noodle chef here must have been an absolute master at his craft. We did have another opportunity to have hand-pulled noodles and the consistency of those noodles were not a patch near the quality of what this chef could do!


The noodles were then cooked in boiling water. Like fresh pasta, it only needed a couple of minutes.






When the noodles were cooked, the noodle chef ladled some hot broth over it and added some meat. He also placed some mixed fresh Asian herbs in the bowl.





This was delicious! I really didn’t need much more for breakfast.


I will admit that both my mother and I pretty much ignored the Western elements of the buffet. Afterall, we could get bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage at any café in Melbourne.

 

[PrincessInOz]

The DIY Guide on what NOT to do for Suzhou – How to Get to Suzhou


Before this trip, I had done a little research on things to do. If you read the PTR section, I think you may have read that Suzhou was on my list of must-do’s for the Friday. I did contemplate booking a tour before I landed in Shanghai and after consulting my mother, we figured we would do-it-ourselves when we got to Shanghai.

My options, instead of DIY, were as follows:

1. I did think about hiring a English speaking Chinese guide – and there are any number of them listed on Viator – but my mother figured we could probably arrange one when we got to Shanghai. I kinda expected that we would be able to get one with help from the hotel concierge.

2. We could have booked ourselves into an English speaking coach tour, picking us up from our hotel and driving us to Suzhou. I priced these tours at about US$120 - $160 per person. I told my mother that I expected we could pick a local tour for cheaper when we got to Shanghai. Again, I kinda expected that we would be able to get one with help from the hotel concierge.


Organising something for Suzhou was the first thing I tried to finalise after we had checked into the hotel. Sadly for us, the spanner in the works was expecting help from the hotel concierge. Turns out that the English speaking tours I found online were the only tours that the hotel concierge recommended. The price was US$160 per person.

Hotel concierge was also remarkably ignorant of hiring a local English speaking Chinese guide.



For the record, I didn’t just try the concierge at the Central Hotel. I also tried the concierge at the Sofitel. Same response for both questions. I do know that there have been threads on Trip Advisor indicating that their various hotel concierge had been able to organise a local guide as well as book them on local tours to Suzhou. Given the information on TA, I would expect that the response will differ depending on which hotel you are staying at.

I may have had the suspicion that there might be some kick-back for the bus tour for the hotels I approached but as I don’t really know, I’ll just leave that one as an unanswered mystery.


Hotel concierge did tell us that we could get to Suzhou by catching a train from the Shanghai Railway Station. My mother and I figured we would take that option and figure things out when we got to Suzhou.

So after breakfast, we made our way to the Shanghai Railway Station. You can get there on Metro lines 1, 3 or 4. Alternatively, you can catch a taxi to the station. The Railway Station is the building where the KFC sign is hanging from and it’s huge!




Be warned! If you are going to DIY your journey to Suzhou without a guide or not being able to speak Mandarin, be prepared to feel a little overwhelmed at the train station ticketing area. In the end, it wasn't difficult to navigate your way through the process, but I did have my Mandarin speaking mother with me.

The SRS is one of four major railway stations in Shanghai. It was certainly one of the largest train stations I’ve ever been in. There were rooms at the entry and also to the side containing banks of self-service kiosks for buying tickets. Yeah. It’s all Chinese to me and whilst my mother reads some Chinese characters, she’s not good with technology and we didn’t want to make a mistake. We figured we needed to go somewhere to talk to a real person when buying our tickets. In any case, I was to find out later that you can’t buy a ticket from these kiosks if you don’t have a Chinese ID card.


My mother had to ask a security guard where we could buy tickets in person. Yeah. We just had to turn around and look. Right in plain sight and in English to boot! It was just in a totally different building to the main train station building. To get to it, we needed to use the pedestrian underpass to walk under the road. We worked that one out after walking to the road only to find it was blocked/barricaded to prevent any pedestrians from jaywalking across.





That area where tickets are sold contained another bank of windows. There would have been 20 – 30 windows, each with a queue of people 20 or 30 deep. To say it was daunting would have been an understatement.

Luckily, there was an information desk at the back of the area. My mother went to ask and it turns out that one of the windows had a little sign in the top right corner that said “English speaking”. The person also helpfully told us which window it was and we went to queue up. There is no way I would have spotted that sign from 20 or 30 people back.


Despite being 20 or 30 people deep, the line moved relatively quickly. It took us about 10 minutes to reach the front. The English-speaking person said they spoke “a little” English. But they obviously understood and spoke more than they were letting on. When we explained that we wanted tickets to Suzhou, they asked some pointed questions and booked both our outbound and return travel for us.

You WILL need your passport to book a train ticket. I thought I had left my passport behind in the hotel safe and tried to use my Australian driver’s licence instead. The DL was rejected and thankfully, I remembered that I had shoved my passport into the inside pocket of my camera bag. Once I handed over my passport, the transaction was successfully completed. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have made it to Suzhou this day. The return tickets cost us about 75 Yuan or about $15 in my money.

It took us about 30 minutes to sort this out so, despite being a little overwhelmed, it wasn’t a bad experience.


Tickets in hand, we headed back to the main railway building. I found this next part of the DIY travel to be very orderly. The tickets will tell you what waiting area to head to, what time the train will leave, the ‘train service number’, what carriage your seats are located in and your seat number. As most of these elements were numbers, it was relatively straightforward for us to read the numbers on boards and work out where we needed to head to.

Oh….On entry of the train station, you will need to go through security. They have x-ray machines similar to what you find at an airport. In fact, we found we had to go through security checking our bags at every Metro station we went through. We never had an issue with passing the security check.


The waiting area was easy to find and on a weekday morning, I also found it very orderly and efficient. There were signs up for each train service. Suzhou is located on the Wuxi line and the sign won’t say Suzhou; it will say Wuxi. Luckily, I had read that before going. My mother was a little concerned when she saw the sign and thought we were in the wrong area.

The other thing I liked about the sign system was the traffic light colours. If the characters were lit in red, the train was delayed. If it was yellow, it meant that the train hadn’t arrived at the platform. For red and yellow signs, the people would find a seat and wait. When it was green, it meant that the train had arrived and you should get up and get ready to board the train. In this case, the green sign was our train. You’ll see what I mean by ‘train service number’ in the sign and the local Shanghai travellers behaving in a very orderly manner. Everyone was very respectful of each other when boarding.





We found our carriage and seats and settled down. Our train left to the minute of the scheduled departure time.

There are about 3 stations that the service stops at along the way. I found all the stations to be extremely clean and modern in design.





I did try and take a picture of a passing train. This is as much of the train as I got. But you can see that the trains are also rather modern in design.





We travelled at around 300 km per hour to Suzhou. At that speed, we got there in about 40 minutes.


Not that I regret doing things the way things unfolded but if I had my time again and in hindsight, I would organise an English-speaking Chinese guide before leaving home. I would also make sure that they – or we – would have transportation to Suzhou worked out and confirmed before leaving home as well. The guides on Viator seem to indicate a charge of about US$20 per hour or as low as US$100 and towards US$300 per day for a group.

Having said that....I would take the train. Having been through it once and now that I know how the system works, I would have no hesitation in repeating the process of heading to the SRS and buying the tickets the same way. It was a very efficient and cheap way to travel.

 

[PrincessInOz]

The DIY Guide on What NOT to do for Suzhou – How NOT to Find a Tour


I decided it was probably prudent to leave the camera in the bag whilst we got to Suzhou and worked out way out of the railway station. Afterall, nothing screams ‘t-o-u-r-i-s-t’ more than a big bazooka of a camera, right?


*Sigh* I don’t know why I bother!!!! And I didn't bother again to hide the camera after today.


The touters were waiting at the exit for everyone. It was obvious that we were tourists to them. There was a bunch of them trying to sell us tours and it just got old very quickly.


I had done enough research to know that we would need a way to get around Suzhou to see the attractions. It really isn't walkable. My mother and I had thought we would hire a taxi for the day and we were not in the mood to deal with the touters. The mistake I made was taking the left fork towards the exit rather than walking through the touters towards the taxi. I figured that I would find a way to the taxis if I just headed out.


We found a…….Tuk Tuk.





What can I say? My mother wanted to ride the tuk-tuk….and no matter how old I am, I’m the child, she's the parent.

I’m positive that we got somewhat scammed by the tuk-tuk driver….not once but twice.

The first was over the price of the ride. I’m sure we negotiated 20 Yuan. Turns out, it was 20 Yuan EACH. I’m sure we negotiated 20 Yuan total!!!! Still…..20 Yuan is like $4 in my money. No biggie; and I would have happily handed over the 40 Yuan IF that was what we negotiated in the first place. I just hate when I'm taken for a ride that never really eventuated.

Somewhere during this journey, he talked my mother into going to a shop he knew for a small group tour around Suzhou. As they were speaking in Mandarin, I had no say at all until the deal was done! And this was at the START of the ride.

We never got to finish the tuk-tuk ride to get our bearings around Suzhou. He took us straight to the shop.


It wasn’t too bad at the shop. There were small vans outside the shop and they handed us a form. As I could only see small vans, I figured it was pretty much as good a tour as any; and I was happy to go along with the turn of events.

I’m pretty sure we ticked 5 items on the list that seemed to include the Humble Administrator’s Garden, The Lion Rock Garden, a Grand Canal Cruise, the old Hutong area and another garden that had a Pagoda. It cost us about 300 Yuan each; or about $60 in my money. Even with the $15 train fare and compared to the U$160 per person price for the bus tour from the hotel concierge, it was practically a bargain.


The tuk-tuk driver collected his money and disappeared. I'm pretty sure he collected a commission for bringing us to the shop as well. It just didn't happen in my field of vision.


We were bundled into a minivan with about 15 other people and we headed out. So far, it was living up to the small group expectation.

We drove down some very narrow streets. I think you can see the sandwich board on the left hand side. That will give you an idea of the sorts of gardens and things we had included in our wish list.





Not that I regret doing things the way things unfolded but if I had my time again and in hindsight, I would organise an English-speaking Chinese guide before leaving home. I would also make sure that they – or we – would have transportation to Suzhou worked out and confirmed before leaving home as well. The guides on Viator seem to indicate a charge of about US$20 per hour or as low as US$100 and towards US$300 per day for a group.
Or...next time, I'd muscle my way past the touters and see if I could negotiate a taxi hire for the entire day!

 

[Fairy Floss]

I'm pretty sure he collected a commission for bringing.....
I would guarantee that this happened

Also Viator is a company that resells tours - sort of like a broker
Most tours in China include a compulsory shopping tour at a government store (very annoying!)

@Fairy Floss also successfully used a different combination. I'll leave it to her to share, if she wants to.

Okie dokies....
my telco in Aus is Vodafone
One of the reasons I am with them is they charge only $5 a day to use your phone/data plan in certain countries overseas (AND you only pay for the days you actually use it)
China is one of the countries
I downloaded express VPN - this was an app on my phone and I managed to get a 7 day free trial
My connection was L.A. - I didn't know how to change my connection
I didn't have too much trouble with this and the hotel wifi
The free park wifi was fine - except for day 2 - SDL decided you needed a code sent to your phone via SMS to connect (I decided I didn't want to spend $5 to connect to 'free' wifi)
I needed to use Vodafone in Hong Kong - the free park wifi was so patchy that didn't realise it existed

 

[dolphingirl47]

I expect that sign language and pointing to items on the menu would have worked equally as well.

That tends to be my approach when I am in France.

Every major foodie country will have a version of a Hot Pot or Fondue. Whether it’s a water, soup, cheese or chocolate version…..I love the concept.

I love it, too.

Afterall, it’s all about handing over cash at a restaurant….and having the pleasure of cooking your own food!

Now if you put it like this ...

We ended up with 2 peanut sauces.

I would have been in heaven.

And yes, all our hopes were answered when we checked out the buffet. It WAS an East West buffet. By way of example, we found French toast and pancakes; as well as rice flour bao, sticky rice dumplings (or zongzi) and fried noodles.

I would have loved this. I am not a breakfast person, but I could eat noodles at any time of the day or night.

What interested both my mother and me more was the fresh noodle station. There was a stash of dough much like you would find in a pizza shop and the noodle chef would cut a little bit off when you placed an order.

That looks amazing.

When the noodles were cooked, the noodle chef ladled some hot broth over it and added some meat. He also placed some mixed fresh Asian herbs in the bowl.

That looks absolutely delicious.

The tickets will tell you what waiting area to head to, what time the train will leave, the ‘train service number’, what carriage your seats are located in and your seat number.

That sounds like the trains in France.

Our train left to the minute of the scheduled departure time.

I wished that this happened over here once in a while.

We never got to finish the tuk-tuk ride to get our bearings around Suzhou. He took us straight to the shop.

Now, that would have irritated me.

Corinna

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm on the edge of my seat wondering how your tour went after that start.

How cool that you had a noodle chef at the breakfast in your hotel - that would have been fun!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Also Viator is a company that resells tours - sort of like a broker
Most tours in China include a compulsory shopping tour at a government store (very annoying!)

There is a section on Viator that provides a list of 'accredited' tour guides. I expect that Viator will have a service fee that the guides have to pay for being promoted through Viator.....but the guides are there for anyone who wants a private tour without having to do the standard Viator "tours". These private tour guides will run tours for individuals or small groups.

There are enough anecdotal feedback (on the Viator site as well as on Trip Advisor) indicating that these private guides are less pushy where the compulsory shopping is concerned. In fact, I do remember reading through some of the guide bio's and some specifically list that they don't take anyone to shops; unless specifically requested.

Viator isn't the only company that will promote private guides. But it seems to be the one most referenced on Trip Advisor.

Okie dokies....
my telco in Aus is Vodafone
One of the reasons I am with them is they charge only $5 a day to use your phone/data plan in certain countries overseas (AND you only pay for the days you actually use it)
China is one of the countries
I downloaded express VPN - this was an app on my phone and I managed to get a 7 day free trial
My connection was L.A. - I didn't know how to change my connection
I didn't have too much trouble with this and the hotel wifi
The free park wifi was fine - except for day 2 - SDL decided you needed a code sent to your phone via SMS to connect (I decided I didn't want to spend $5 to connect to 'free' wifi)
I needed to use Vodafone in Hong Kong - the free park wifi was so patchy that didn't realise it existed

Thank you.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Now, that would have irritated me.

It did irritate me for a little bit; but I reminded myself that it was only $4 in Aussie terms...and I figured it was better to just wish him luck with it than hold on to the irritation.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I'm on the edge of my seat wondering how your tour went after that start.

How cool that you had a noodle chef at the breakfast in your hotel - that would have been fun!

I think I might have promised @shushh that I would get the Suzhou section covered before she left for Shanghai, so I won't leave you at the edge of the seat for too long. I was hoping to push it along tonight; but I got home later than I expected...so I may craft the edition tomorrow.

Yes, that noodle chef was great...and if it weren't for the language barrier, I think I would have had fun chatting with him on both mornings we were there.

 

[shushh]

Yes you have indeed!
I just love the good Asian hotel buffet breakfast. Drool...that noodle chef is awesome!
Oh and I have now booked our English speaking guide for our trip to Nanxun

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Good on you for tackling China on your own. You're very brave - the language barrier is pretty big.

Those shop tours are so annoying. There were a few we enjoyed, but to the most part they aggravated me as they are not representative of real China.

Looking forward to the upcoming Suzhou post. All I really remember of the city was the canals and it looks like your visit list was considerably more extensive.

 

[Fairy Floss]

There is a section on Viator that provides a list of 'accredited' tour guides. I expect that Viator will have a service fee that the guides have to pay for being promoted through Viator.....but the guides are there for anyone who wants a private tour without having to do the standard Viator "tours". These private tour guides will run tours for individuals or small groups.

I haven't noticed this ...
I use the app - is this on the app or web page?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yes you have indeed!

I hope you like the next update!!! And....only for you!!!

I just love the good Asian hotel buffet breakfast. Drool...that noodle chef is awesome!
Oh and I have now booked our English speaking guide for our trip to Nanxun

:


Don't tell me you hadn't had one sorted out before reading my recommendation!!!!

Good on you for tackling China on your own. You're very brave - the language barrier is pretty big.

Those shop tours are so annoying. There were a few we enjoyed, but to the most part they aggravated me as they are not representative of real China.

Looking forward to the upcoming Suzhou post. All I really remember of the city was the canals and it looks like your visit list was considerably more extensive.

You'll have to read to see how my day in Suzhou unfolded!!!

I haven't noticed this ...
I use the app - is this on the app or web page?

I think it's on the webpage.

https://tourguides.viator.com/Listing.aspx?Country=China

 

[PrincessInOz]

The DIY Guide on what NOT to do for Suzhou – The Venice of the East



"Capital of Silk," "Land of Abundance," "Gusu city," "Cradle of the Wu Culture," "World of Gardens," "Oriental Venice,” or “Venice of the East."


These are some of the nicknames of Suzhou. In my research, I knew that Suzhou would be a place that I needed to try and head to. The town has managed to retain much of its heritage buildings and has some serious classical gardens that I wanted to go-see.


Suzhou is a city (population size of about 5 million) on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu, China. Called the cradle of Wu culture, Suzhou is the oldest town in the Yangtze Basin, founded in 514 B.C. With the completion of the Grand Canal during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 C.E.), Suzhou found itself strategically located on a major trade route. That marked the emergence of Suzhou as a center for trade and commerce. Suzhou has been an important center for China's silk industry since the Song Dynasty (960-1279), and continues to hold that prominent position today.


Suzhou reached its golden age with the Ming Dynasty in 1368 C.E. During the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing dynasty which followed, aristocrats constructed many of the famous private gardens. From that period, the city has won renown for its beautiful stone bridges, pagodas, and meticulously designed gardens. By the end of World War II, many of the gardens lay in ruins. The Chinese government launched a project in the 1950s, to restore the gardens to their former glory. In 1981, the provincial government listed Suzhou as a historical and cultural heritage site, assisting Suzhou in becoming one of the most prosperous cities in China. UNESCO designated the Classical Gardens of Suzhou a World Heritage Site in 1997 and 2000. The noted Classical Gardens of Suzhou included the Humble Administrator’s Garden, The Master of the Nets, the Lingering Net and the Lion Grove (or Forest) Garden.


On the train to Suzhou, we chatted with one of the local residents. He advised that we would need 4 full days to see everything that Suzhou had to offer. We only had 7 hours!


Not that I regret doing things the way things unfolded but NEXT time, I would definitely stay 3 nights in Suzhou.




(Continued in Next Post)